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Eliza R. Snow
| birth_place = Becket, Massachusetts, U.S. | nationality = American | death_date = December | death_place = Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | education = | alma_mater = | notable_works = | spouse = Joseph Smith, Jr. (1842-1844; sealed) Brigham Young (1844-1877; deceased) | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature size = | signature_alt = | website = | position_or_quorum1 = 2nd General President of the Relief Society | start_date1 = 1866 | end_date1 = | predecessor1 = Emma Smith | successor1 = Zina D. H. Young | position_or_quorum2 = 1st Secretary of the Relief Society | start_date2 = 1842 | end_date2 = 1844 | end_reason2 = | footnotes = | list_notes = }} Eliza Roxcy Snow (January 21, 1804 - December 5, 1887) was an American poet. Life Overview Snow was a renowned poet, and a celebrated Latter-day Saint woman of the 19th century. She chronicled history, celebrated nature and relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine. She claimed to be a plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., was married openly for many years to polygamist Brigham Young, and was the 2nd general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1866 until her death. Youth and education Born in Becket, Massachusetts on January 21, 1804, Snow was the 2nd daughter of Rosetta and Oliver Snow. When she was 2 years old, her family left New England to settle on a new and fertile farm in the Western Reserve valley, in Mantua, Ohio. The Snow family valued learning and saw that each child had educational opportunities. Eliza worked as secretary for her father in his office as justice of the peace. Early church involvement Snow's Baptist parents welcomed a variety of religious believers into their home. In 1828, Snow and her parents joined Alexander Campbell’s Christian restorationist movement, the Disciples of Christ. When Joseph Smith, Jr., the Latter Day Saint prophet, took up residence in Hiram, Ohio, four miles from the Snow farm in 1831, the Snow family took a strong interest in the new religious movement. Eliza's mother and sister joined the Latter Day Saint Church early on; several years later, in 1835, Eliza was baptized and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, which was at the time the headquarters of the Church. Upon her arrival, Eliza donated her inheritance, a large sum of money, toward the building of the Church's Kirtland Temple. In appreciation, the building committee provided her with the title to "a very valuable lot-situated near the Temple, with a fruit tree-an excellent spring of water, and house that accommodated two families." Here Eliza taught school for Joseph Smith's family and was influential in interesting her younger brother Lorenzo Snow in the young Church. Lorenzo later became fifth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Snow moved west with her family and the body of the Church, to Adam-ondi-Ahman, a short-lived LDS settlement in Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. In Nauvoo, Snow again made her living as a school teacher. She claimed to have secretly wed Joseph Smith, on 29 June 1842, as a plural wife. Eliza wrote fondly of Joseph “my beloved husband, the choice of my heart and the crown of my life”. However, Snow organized a petition in that same Summer of 1842, with a thousand female signatures, denying Smith was connected with polygamy and extoling his "virtue".Times and Seasons 3 1, 1842: 869 Furthermore, as Secretary of the Ladies' Relief Society she organized the publishing of a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying Smith as its creator or participant.Times and Seasons 3 1, 1842: 940 When Snow was informed that Smith's widow Emma Hale Smith had stated on her deathbed that her husband had never been a polygamist, Snow was reported to have stated "Sister Emma ... sunk so low ... (and) died with a libel on her lips." Newell, L.K. & Avery, V.T. (1994) Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith at pp. 307-08, quoting from Women's Exponent (retrieved October 22, 2012) Snow married polygamist Brigham Young as a plural wife. She traveled west across the plains and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 2 October 1847. There, childless Eliza became a prominent member of Young's family, moving into an upper bedroom in Young's Salt Lake City residence, the Lion House. Relief Society service Snow served as the first secretary of the LDS women's Nauvoo Female Relief Society in 1842 under the presidency of Emma Smith. Called by Young in 1866 to help bishops organize Relief Societies in local wards and to "instruct the sisters," Eliza traveled throughout Utah Territory encouraging women to attend meetings, sustain priesthood leaders, and support Young's economic programs. Snow’s presidency emphasized spirituality and self-sufficiency. The Relief Society sent women to medical school, trained nurses, opened the Deseret Hospital, operated cooperative stores, promoted silk manufacture, saved wheat, and built granaries. In 1872 Snow provided assistance and advice to Louisa L. Greene in the creation of a woman's publication loosely affiliated with the Relief Society—the Woman's Exponent. Snow's responsibilities also extended to young women and children within the Church. She was a primary organizer for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association in 1870 and assisted Aurelia Spencer Rogers in establishing the Primary Association in 1878. Snow served as president of the Relief Society until her death in 1887. By 1888, the Relief Society had more than 22,000 members in 400 local wards and branches. Snow died on December 5, 1887, in Salt Lake City, and was buried in Brigham Young's family cemetery. Writing Snow wrote poetry from a young age, once even writing her school lessons in rhyme. Between 1826 and 1832 she published more than 20 poems in local newspapers, including the Ravenna, Ohio Western Courier and the Ohio Star, using various pen names. A number of Snow's poems were set to music and have become important LDS hymns, some of which appear in the current edition of the LDS Hymnal. Her hymns "Great is the Lord" was published in the first Latter-day Saint Hymnbook in 1835, the year of her baptism. In Nauvoo, Eliza R. Snow gained unique distinction as a Mormon poet featured in local newspapers, and she was later called "Zion's Poetess." She continued to write poems as she crossed the plains, documenting the pioneer trail and life in Utah. The earlier of her 2 volumes of Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political appeared in 1856, followed by the later in 1877. Some of her poems include: * "How Great the Wisdom and the Love"How Great the Wisdom and the Love, Mormon Literature Website, BYU * "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother" ("Oh, My Father")Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, Mormon Literature Website, BYU * "Be Not Discouraged"Be Not Discouraged, Mormon Literature Website, BYU * "My First View of a Western Prairie"My First View of a Western Prairie, Mormon Literature Website, BYU * "Mental Gas"Mental Gas, Mormon Literature Website, BYU * "Think not When You Gather to Zion Your Troubles and Trials are Through" * "O Awake! My Slumbering Minstrel" * "Truth Reflects upon Our Senses"See "Life's Railway to Heaven" as first published by Charles Davis Tillman. A well-known poem of hers, "Invocation; or, The eternal father and mother," was written soon after the death of her father and just over a year after the death of Joseph Smith.Snow, E.R. My Father in Heaven, Times and Seasons 6, 15 November 1845 This poem, renamed "O My Father", is included in the current LDS Hymnal along with How Great the Wisdom and the Love and Truth Reflects upon our Senses. Publications Poetry *''Time and Change: A poem in blank verse : Also two odes''. Nauvoo, IL: E. Robinson, `841. *''Poems Religious, Historical and Political''. Salt Lake City, UT: Latter-day Saints' Printing & Publishing Establishment, 1856; (2 volumes), Liverpool, UK: F.D. Richards / London: Latter-Day Saints Book Depot, 1856. Volume I, Volume II *''The Nauvoo Poems of Eliza R. Snow''. Havana, IL: Mason County, Illinois, Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1989. *''The Poems of Eliza R. Snow: Zion's poet laureate''. Sandy, UT: Jason Crane, 2004. *''Selected Poetry: The best of Eliza R. Snow''. Louisville, KY: Wasteland Press, 2005. *''The Complete Poetry'' (edited by Jill Mulvay Derr & Karen Lynn Davidson). Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press; Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2009. Non-fiction *''Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow: One of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1884. **Reprinted Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1999. *''Gospel Themes: Thoughts she learned from the prophets she knew (edited by Donald M. Humphrey). **''Volume I''. Orem, UT: Raymont Publishers, 1982 **''Volume II''. Salt Lake City, UT: Randall Book, 1983. *''Historic Scenes: As she observed them''. Salt Lake City, UT: Randall Book, 1985. Juvenile *''Bible Questions and Answers for Children. Salt Lake City, UT: Juvenile Instruction Office, 1881. *''The Story of Jesus (illustrated by Kathleen Barlow). Springville, UT: CFI, 2011. Collected editions *''Eliza R. Snow: An immortal: Selected writings''. Salt Lake City, UT: Nicholas G. Morgan Sr. Foundation, 1957. Edited *''Hymns and Songs Selected from various authors for the Primary Associations of the Children of Zion. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1880. Letters and journals *''Personal Writings (edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher). Salt Lake City, UT : University of Utah Press, 1995. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Eliza R. Snow, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 17, 2013. Audio / video *''Eliza R. Snow's Greatest Hymns''. Orem, UT: LDSsongs.com , 2000. See also *List of U.S. poets *List of English-language hymnists References * * Palmer, Spencer J., Editor. "Eliza R. Snow's 'Sketch of my Life': Reminiscences of One of Joseph Smith's Plural Wives." BYU Studies 12 (Autumn 1971). Notes External links ;Audio / video *The Story of Eliza R. Snow, Joseph Smith's 15th wife at YouTube *Eliza R. Snow, Part 1 at the Mormon Channel *Eliza R. Snow: The complete poetry at Amazon.com ;About *Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) at Forgotten Women Poets *Eliza R. Snow at Mormon Women History *Snow, Eliza R. in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism * Snow, Eliza Roxcy at The Joseph Smith Papers. *Eliza R. Snow: First Lady of the pioneers" at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints *"The Poetry of Eliza R. Snow: An interview with Jill Mulvay Derr" at By Common Consent. 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